clothes (Page 2)

And not just if you take them off at the wrong time, either.

Fashion expert Alison Matthews David explains why the Hatter in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was “Mad.” She says, “Hatters used to work with highly toxic materials that led to mercury poisoning. Their symptoms were pallor, anemia, trembling and disorientation. It’s possible that Lewis Carroll, who grew up near a center of the hatting trade, would have seen people behaving as ‘mad as a hatter.'”
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Amazing new inventions on the horizon – It’s about time: Some amazing new inventions are coming our way: All it takes is researchers who can envision the future. What if charging your computer, iPod or cell phone was as easy as plugging it into your tee shirt? And what if you could power your building by working out in the basement?
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What will we be wearing in the future? Whether they’re invisible or made out of chicken feathers, the fabrics that make up our clothes are changing. One of these may be made up of something that grows so fast it’s almost considered a weed in Asia: bamboo. And finally, a machine has been invented that can spin silk as strong as spiders.

Bamboo is widely available in Japan, China, India and other countries, and bamboo fabric is soft, durable and elastic. It hangs as gracefully as silk, and has an attractive, lustrous sheen. Bamboo is also one of the world?s fastest growing plants, reaching maturity in about 3-4 years, compared to 25 to 70 years for commercial tree species in the US.
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We’ve all heard about the fashion police who patrol the streets of Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, arresting women who are not modestly dressed. This has even spilled over into Western countries, but this is a much more serious topic in the Middle East. In China, it has to do with making a good impression on Western visitors during the Olympics, which will be held there next summer.
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